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Health Care-Associated Infections

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her intervention, and I listened to what she said in her powerful speech, but may I move on to discuss a specific case study? A number of people have come to see me about C. difficile in my area, and one family has been willing to go public about what happened. It is to do with the case of Mr. Frederick Harrison who, sadly, died a few months ago in Kettering hospital. Let me read what Mrs. Harrison, his daughter-in-law, said:"““My father in law was admitted to KGH in March 2007 after a fall. He was kept in overnight as he had a slight temperature. They then said he could not be discharged until the Monday because no Doctor was available to sign the paperwork. That weekend the ward he was in was closed to visitors for a week because of an outbreak of diarrhoea.""My father in law was then transferred to the new isolation unit as he had contracted C-diff. He was there for 4 months in isolation, no children allowed to visit, and visitors and visiting time was limited. Although all the nurses were absolutely fantastic he was told to soil the bed, which he found very distressing.""We were advised he was clear of the infection and he was moved to the Isebrook Hospital for rehabilitation. He started to slowly recover, but again after a fall, we were told the C-diff was back and he was transferred back to KGH isolation unit.""He died on 11 September 2007 after almost 7 months in isolation. There was no mention of C-diff on the death certificate.""On registering the death my husband was told that this was to keep the statistics down. This cannot be right. This is a horrible, degrading infection and we would not wish any other families to go through this. However we also could not have gone through a post mortem or inquest at the time, and did not contest the fact that it was omitted from the death certificate.””" I think that many people would understand Mrs. Harrison's concern. She concluded by saying about Mr. Harrison:"““Yes he was 86 but before March he was reasonably healthy.""I am not a Doctor but after 7 months in isolation C-diff must have been a contributory cause of death.””" I want to make the point that that highlights: there appears to be under-recording of deaths from C. difficile.